Multisectioned radiator



May 22, 1951 B. v. GlEGERlcH 2,554,185

MULTISECTIONED RADIATOR Filed Jan. 15, 1949 ITM/@Tit QT- 2 Bertrand Sieger-ich,

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Patented May 22, 1951 MULTISECTION ED RADIATOR Bertrand V. Giegerich, Pittsfield, Mass., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application January 15, 1949, Serial No. 71,072

1 Claim.

cally satisfactory, this type of radiator is quite expensive to construct. The present invention discloses a multisectioned yradiator construction which allows for ease in fabrication and a reduction in the cost of construction.

The radiator tubes herein described are fabricated from flat sheets of metal having indented portions or ribs, thus dividing the sheets into a plurality of sections.- At least one edge of the metal sheet-the edge being parallel to the ribs -is folded back upon itself or bent through an angle of 180 so that it comes in contact with one of the ribs. An unfolded end of the radiator sheet may be inserted between the folded portion of the rst sheet and the indented portion or rib it abuts. The ribbed portions of the metal sheets of the radiator are placed in contiguous relationship to each other and may be securely fastened together by any suitable means such as resistance welding.

sectionalized tubing formed by pressing indentations in sheet metal is not new in the art of heat exchanger construction, but this sectionalized radiator construction presents an advantage over the sectionalized radiators now in use by providing protected welded areas. 'I'hat is, all welded portions are located away from edges or surfaces exposed to possible injury by abrasion or denting. `A resistance weld is usually made a short distance, M3" to from the edge of the material being welded. This leaves a small crack where the material is lapped. If the seam, thus formed, is not adequately protected by paint or the like, moisture will be held in the crack by capillary action and the corro- Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a new and simple multisectioned radiator construction which is both simple and economical to construct.

It is a further object of this invention to pro-v vide such a multisectioned radiator which may be fabricated from sheet metal.

Another object of this invention is toprovide such a multisectioned radiator wherein the welded portions are recessed and protected from damage.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a wide flat radiator tube divided into several sections by welded ribs which strengthen and stiffen the radiator tube and enable it to withstand the4 internal pressures which may be encountered.

The invention Will be better understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a liquid cooled transformer incorporating a particular embodiment of the invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the particular embodiment of this invention shown in Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 are a front elevation and crosssectional View of the elbow or header used in this invention. Figs. 5 and 6 are cross-sectional views of alternative constructions of this invention.

Referring now to the drawing, there is shown therein by way of example, a liquid cooled transformer unit l having a casing 2 which houses the enclosed electric transformer device. Since heat is generated during the operation of the transformer, it is necessary that means be provided to permit the dissipation of this energy. Cooling liquid, which surrounds the electric device and is housed within the casing 2, circulates through the multisectioned radiators 3 which are secured to the transformer housing 2 by the elbows 4. The warm liquid enters the radiator 3 through the upper elbows 4 and, after dissipating a large portion of its heat energy to the surrounding atmosphere by convection and radiation, re-enters the transformer housing 2 through the lower elbows 4.

The multisectioned radiator 3, shown in Fig. 2, is constructed from two similar sheets of metal 5 and 5', which are indented to form a plurality of parallel ribs 6, l, and 8 and B', l', and 8. The edges 9 and 9 adjacent to the ribs 6 and 6' are bent back through an angle of substantially so that the ribs 6 and 6' abut the ribs 1 and I respectively, thus forming the tubular sections I and I0. The two halves, 5 and 5', of the multisectional radiator 3 are then arranged so that the edge II', which is parallel to and opposite the edge 9', and the rib 8' are then placed between the ribs 6 and 1; similarly, the edge II and rib 8 are placed between the ribs 6 and 1. The contiguous ribs of the radiator halves and 5 are then welded together.

The elbow 4, shown in Figs. 3 and 4, isy a hollow substantially triangular shaped member having a base side I2 and an altitude side I3 which are open; the hypotenuse side I4 is closed. The side I3 is welded to the casing 2 of the transformer unit I and the base I2 is provided with indented portions I5 which fit securely over the welded ribs of the radiator 3. The edge I6 of the side I2 is then welded to the multisectionedl radiator 3.

In Fig. 5, a two sectioned radiator I1, which is constructed of only one sheet of metal I8, is Shown, and in Fig. 6, a four sectioned radiator I9 is illustrated. The construction of these radiators is essentially the same as the three sectioned unit 3 which has been described. In the two sectioned radiator I'I both edges, 20 and 2|, which are parallel to the ribs, are bent back through an angle of 180.

While there have been shown and described particular embodiments of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modications may be made therein without departing from the invention and, therefore, it is aimed, in the appended claim, to cover all such changes and modications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

In a radiator unit, a liquid tube member having at least three at tubes, and individual header members for opposite ends of Said tube member, said tube member comprising two similar bent rectangular pieces of sheet metal, each piece having one side bent to form one integral tube extending the length of said piece along one side thereof, said tube having a slit extending its entire length and facing toward the opposite side edge of said piece, each piece also being bent to form the same number of longitudinally extending ribs parallel to its sides, said pieces being reversed relative to each other and being faceto-face with each other with said opposite side edge of each piece in the slit of the tube formed by the other `piece and with complementary ribs of said pieces in contact with each other so as to form a tube member having at least three tubes withV closed sides, welds joining said pieces where they contact each other to seal the sides of Said separate tubes in said tube member, said header members each having an open side which receives an end of said tube member, said open side of each header member having indented portions for closely embracing the end of said tube member between the ends of its tubes, said header members each having an additional opening for making liquid-tight connections to said radiator unit.

BERTRAND V. GIEGERICH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the iile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 936,232 Berg Oct. 5, 1909 1,766,654 Kubler June 24, 1930 1,800,163 Thompson Apr. 7, 1931 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country v Dater 251,619 Great Britain Jan. 6, 1927 687,592 France Apr. 29, 1930 667,327 Germany Nov. 9, 1938 99,377 Sweden Mar. 16, 1940 

